Lions in SA
Four Lions fans robbed in SA
2009-06-20 14:52
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Johannesburg - Four British rugby fans on Saturday told how they were beaten up and robbed by armed thugs in South Africa shortly after their arrival on the same night that the Egyptian side in a key football tournament became the victims of thieves.
Brothers Michael, 57, and Peter Harriott, 58, and Simon 57, and John Murphy, 52, flew into Johannesburg on Thursday night for the British and Irish Lions tour.
In an interview published by the Saturday Star, the men said the robbers had followed them as they drove to a guesthouse in the plush northern Johannesburg suburb of Sandton where they were due to check in.
"A black Mercedes-Benz boxed us in and four men appeared with guns. They surrounded our car. They ordered us out of the car and told us to lie on the floor and remove our wallets and watches," Michael Harriott said.
He was punched in the nose when he tried to grab one of the robbers' guns, according to the report.
"They threw me to the ground and, the next thing, one of the robbers got into our hired car, while the other three jumped in theirs. They sped off with our luggage."
That same night, several players from the Egyptian football team returned from their 1-0 victory over Italy at the Confederations Cup in Johannesburg to find that their hotel rooms had been ransacked.
Team officials reported the theft of, among other things, foreign current to police. The Saturday Star reported that five rooms at the players' hotel in Illovo, near Sandton, had been robbed and that thieves had made off with several thousand dollars.
South Africa's reputation as a hotspot for petty and violent crime has left many question marks as it prepares to host the 2010 football World Cup. Authorities, however, say football fans will be safe.
Last week, one of the new stadiums built for the World Cup was attacked by armed robbers after an international rugby game.
The robbery at the sports bar of the new Nelson Mandela Bay stadium in the southern city of Port Elizabeth took place on Tuesday afternoon, after a game between the British and Irish Lions and the provincial Southern Kings side.